Woman Dies after Falling While Snowboarding

A 28-year-old Indianapolis woman died after suffering a stroke that was caused when she fell â€śquite hard on her buttocksâ€? while snowboarding at a Colorado ski resort, RTV 6 reported.
Jennifer Ash suffered a tear in a vertebral artery, which caused irreversible brain damage, the coroner said Friday. The fall occurred March 16, and Ash was pronounced dead on March 23, 7 News, an ABC affiliate out of Denver, reported.
â€śThis type of injury occurs with an indirect trauma -- where there is a whipping motion of the neck that can be a hyperextension or from side to side,â€? Coroner Joanne L. Richardson said in a report. (7 News)
Ash was not wearing a helmet at the time of her fall, but Richardson said a helmet would not have had an effect.
Keystone Ski Resort, where Ash was snowboarding at the time of her fall, said ski patrol was not notified about the fall because no one deemed the accident severe enough, RTV 6 reported.
However, when Ash continued to experience pain, friends brought her to Summit Medical Center, 7 News reported. She was later air-lifted to St. Anthony's Central Hospital in Denver, where her injury was discovered.
Ash was in her first year on faculty at Butlerâ€™s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, both sources reported. She had arrived at Keystone Ski Resort March 15 for vacation.